1. Technical Field
The disclosed embodiments generally relate to the field of automated food processing equipment for the restaurant industry. Specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to an automated seasoning device to be used during the preparation of batch prepared foodstuffs.
2. Description of the Related Art
The restaurant industry, and particularly the fast food restaurant industry, depends upon quickly preparing, packaging (or plating), and serving of food in order to, for example, minimize customer waiting and to ensure a freshly prepared quality to the served food. In a fast food restaurant preparation of French fries, typically deep fried potatoes are tossed from a frying basket into a holding area. The fries may then be salted by hand or with a handheld salting device that ensures a controlled portion of salt is delivered to the French fries in the holding area. The salted fries are manually tumbled or agitated to distribute the salt amongst the French fries.
At times, there is a delay between when the cooked French fries are delivered to the holding area and when they are salted. While the fries are silting, they begin to cool, and when they are eventually salted, the adhesion of salt is poor. Other times, the holding area may not be emptied before another hatch of cooked French fries is transferred into the holding area. When these freshly cooked fries are salted, the fries from the previous batch end up being double-salted.
A need exists for an apparatus and method for automating the preparation of seasoned foods, such as salted French fries, wherein such apparatus and method would further enhance the consistency of salting, and improve the overall distribution and adhesion of salt or other seasoning on the cooked French fries. While these needs exist for the preparation of salted French fries, it is also recognized that the seasoning needs exist for any foods, breaded or non-breaded, which are prepared in-batch or individually and are subsequently seasoned, for example but not limited to: other fried or cooked vegetables, chicken pieces or nuggets, shrimp, and so forth.
The disclosure contained herein describes attempts to address one or more of the problems described above.